Monday, March 23, 2015

France should investigate the torture claims of their nationals that were held at Guantanamo

On March 5, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) urged a French Appeals Court to fully investigate claims by three French nationals that they were sexually and physically tortured during their detention at the Guantánamo Bay prison in 2002. But a lack of cooperation from U.S. authorities has stymied the French investigation.
So citizens of France, is it really this easy to ignore the claims of torture???
Read the rest here.

In other Guantanamo related medical news....

The summary of the torture report which was released a few months back (I reported on it here) discussed a prisoner at Gitmo who is now subject to a military commission and who was sodomized as part of his torture. In February the attorneys for that man asked the judge for medical help for their client who still suffers from his torture:

In February, the attorney for Saudi captive Mustafa al Hawsawi asked the judge to intervene in the case, referring to a recently released portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's “Torture Report,” and saying that the 46-year-old man had been rectally abused while in CIA custody — and that he continues to bleed now, at least eight years later.
“Some would call that sodomy,” said attorney Walter Ruiz, adding that “those acts caused longstanding chronic medical conditions that have yet to be resolved.”

Well it seems our great military commissions and their judges cannot (or perhaps more likely, will not) order medical treatment for the defendants in their court rooms...On friday (march 20) the judge released a short order:

Army Col. James L. Pohl wrote in a two-page order released by the Pentagon Friday that the Court's "jurisdiction is limited to try persons subject to the Military Commissions Act Of 2009. lO U.S.C. § 948d. Thereby, this Commission does not have the authority to address issues concerning medical care."  
The order was dated March 10.
Carol Rosenberg has more here.

ADD THIS TO THE VERY LONG LIST OF WAR CRIMES BY MY GOVERNMENT....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy




Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy

Military finally realizing that force feeding might violate medical ethics and international law.....

In January, VICE News obtained a two-page document in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that contained the first known acknowledgement by the US military that force-feeding people who are capable of making informed decisions about their own health is a violation of medical ethics and international law.
This realization has only taken more than 13 years.....
Read the rest here.